Psalm 80 To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Lilies.” A Testimony of Asaph. A Psalm
A Testimony of Asaph. Prophetically, Israel has failed and was scattered (Ps. 78). And Judah was taken into captivity— for sins (Ps. 79). After rebuking the "shepherds" of Israel for failing to care for their "flock," God chooses to become Israel's Good Shepherd, doing what their human shepherds failed to do: seek them, rescue them, protect them, nurture them. Asaph now looks forward in time to the end of probation for Judah— “the Advent of the Lord and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His vineyard” when Jerusalem is again attacked and its temple destroyed, making the ancient religion dysfunct, except for the new thing that the Lord was doing.
“This testimony does confess both Christ and the vineyard; that is, Head and Body, King and people, Shepherd and flock, and the entire mystery of all Scriptures, Christ and the Church.” (New Advent) Firstly: “Of Him it is specially said, that He should feed His flock like a shepherd. He was promised under that character by the Father, Isaiah 40:11. So again, Jehovah saith by another prophet, ‘I will set up one Shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even my servant David: He shall feed them, and He shall be their Shepherd’ Ezekiel 34:23.” (Hawkers Poor Man’s Commentary)
1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth!
"'Give ear O Shepherd of Israel.' Jesus says ‘I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the Shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it... I am the Good Shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me’ (John 10:11-14) "‘Shepherd of Israel’ reminds us of Jacob’s blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh in which he invoked ‘the God who shepherded me all my life long’ to ‘bless the lads,’ and of the title in Genesis 49:24, ‘the shepherd, the stone of Israel.’” (Alexander Maclaren) The two sons of Joseph represented the right of the firstborn to the double portion. —"'You who lead [the tribe of] Joseph like a flock’ as He did the patriarchs, even Abraham, Isaac and [his father] Jacob. Joseph has the birthright after it was taken from Reuben, 1 Chronicle 5:1. So Israel, according to the flesh, failed; and now perhaps Joseph- the 11th son of Jacob- represents the church of the firstborn. He was the firstborn son of Jacob and and his beloved Rachel (Genesis 30:22–24; 37:3). Rachel named him Joseph, “He will add.” Legally, the birthright had belonged to Reuben, the firstborn son of Jacob’s first wife— Leah, but he lost the privilege by transgression (1 Chronicles 5:1–2).
“‘You who dwell between the cherubim,’ typified by the shekinah, or visible glory, which dwelt upon the mercy seat, above the ark of the covenant— “’Shine forth!’ Let light come from Thy presence in the midst of our darkness and calamity.” (Albert Barnes) Reveal the precepts of thy mercy seat, founded upon the work abs the Person of Jesus. They speak of Him as ‘the Man of Thy right hand,’ as ‘the Son of Man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself.’ (v. 15)....” (Arno Gaebelein)
2 Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up Your strength, and come and save us!
“‘Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh,’ before the church of the first born, ‘stir up Your strength, and come and save us!’ Ephraim was the leading tribe in the north and Benjamin was the leader in the south. Manasseh was the leader in Transjordan in the east.” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) And: “In the encampment and march through the wilderness, these three tribes always went together. “They encamped side by side on the west of the Tabernacle, and when the ark moved forward they took their places immediately behind it to head the procession....“ (Gill)— the ark itself being borne by staves resting on the shoulders of by priests, lest any touch it.
3 Restore us, O God; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved! 4 O Lord God of hosts, how long will You be angry against the prayer of Your people? 5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in great measure. 6 You have made us a strife to our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves. 7 Restore us, O God of hosts; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved!
“’Restore us, O God; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved! O Lord God of hosts [of the spiritual battle field on which we fight], how long will You be angry against the prayer of Your people?’ This ancient litany surely befits the present condition of the Church, when she is rent by internal divisions, or infected with a spirit of skepticism and unable to exorcise the demons that possess society. Let us plead with God to enlighten us by His face and quicken us by His Spirit. God must defend His cause, else there is no help for it.” (F. B. Meyers)
“8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it. 9 You prepared room for it, and caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land. 10 The hills were covered with its shadow, and the mighty cedars with its boughs.”
God brought the whole congregation, including some bramble, out of Egypt. But there is the vine within the vine— the first born on whose behalf He performed the work. This is a prayer of confidence, that God would revive all born again believers. “‘Thou broughtest a vine [the firstborn— spared of Pharaoh’s threats] out of Egypt ... plantedst it’ (Psalms 80:8). This is a reference to the bringing forth of Israel out of Egyptian slavery. Thou preparedst room before it’ (Psalms 80:9). This speaks of God's driving out the pagan nations of Canaan to make room for the settlement of Israel in the Promised Land. ‘It took deep root, and filled the land’ (Psalms 80:9). This describes the growth and prosperity of Israel in Canaan. Psalms 80:10 is an expansion of the thought here.” (Burton Coffman) "The figure of a vine to represent Israel is very old. It probably originated in Jacob’s blessing of Joseph ( Genesis 49:22). The prophets used it often (cf. Isaiah 5:1-7; Isaiah 27:2-6; Jeremiah 2:21; Jeremiah 12:10; Ezekiel 15; Ezekiel 19:10-14; Hosea 10:1). The Lord Jesus also used it to describe Himself, the ideal Israel ( John 15:1; John 15:5). It is an appropriate figure because a vine is a source of blessing to others (cf. Genesis 12:3).” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable)
“In the Old Testament the vine is the type of Israel, planted by the Almighty as the husbandman to adorn, refresh, and quicken the earth (Psa 80; Isa 5:1; Jer 2:21; Eze 19:10; Hos 10:1). But Israel proved itself ‘the degenerate plant of a strange vine.’ Jesus, therefore, is here the ‘True Vine,’ because He is the True Israel of God, in whom is fulfilled all that is demanded of the True Vine, whether for beauty and blessing to the world, or for glory to the Husbandman. In Him all His people are summed up.” (Schaff's Popular Commentary)
11 Its branches reached as far as the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.
“The Mediterranean, or midland sea, which was the border of the land of Canaan to the west: and her branches unto the river; the river Euphrates, which was its border to the east; see Deuteronomy 11:24. This, in the spiritual sense of it, will have its accomplishment in the church of Christ, when He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth, Psalm 72:8. The Targum is, ‘she sent out her disciples to the great sea, and to the river Euphrates her babes;’ or sucklings.” (John Gill)
“This refers to the expansion of the Hebrew kingdom from the Mediterranean Sea to the River Euphrates, the boundaries of the nation during the reign of Solomon.” (Burton Coffman)
12 Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes? 13 Boars from the forest ravage it, and insects from the fields feed on it.
“Walls' here is a reference to the walls of the vineyard, the walls of Jerusalem. Coupled with Psalms 80:16, below, where it appears that the vineyard has been burned with fire and cut down... ‘The boar out of the wood ... the wild beasts...’ These were nations such as Assyria and Babylon which ravaged and destroyed the ‘degenerate vine.’” (Burton Coffman) ”Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and He looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness but behold a cry” (Isaiah 5:1-7)
14 Return to us, God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine! 15 the Root Your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself.
“Look down from heaven, and behold. Condescend to ‘look down’ upon us ‘from heaven,’ thy dwelling place, and ‘behold’ - take note of our condition, see how we suffer, and thou wilt be sure to visit this vine; i.e. to ‘visit’ it, not in wrath, but in loving kindness and compassion - to ‘visit it with thy salvation’ (Psalm 106:4).” (Pulpit Commentary) “About 800 B.C., the Lord spoke through the prophet Hosea, saying, ‘When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.’ Hosea 11:1. Yet by this time the nation of Israel had failed to live up to the spiritual meaning of its own name. This verse in Hosea will explode with tremendous importance in just a moment, when we look at the New Testament.
Approximately 800 years after Hosea's prophecy, ‘Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king.’ Matthew 2:1. Because Herod was threatened by this new child king, he sent soldiers who ‘slew all the children that were in Bethlehem.’ Verse 16. Joseph was warned of the impending crisis in advance. ‘The angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word.’ Verse 13. So the holy family arose and ‘departed into Egypt.’ Verse 14.
Matthew writes that little Jesus remained in Egypt ‘until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.’ Verse 15. Notice that Matthew is quoting Hosea 11:1, which originally referred to the nation of Israel coming out of Egypt, yet now he declares it ‘fulfilled’ in Jesus Christ! Here Matthew is beginning to reveal a truly shocking principle that he develops throughout his Gospel.
For example, one time after healing a group of people, Jesus modestly ‘charged them that they should not make him known: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias [Greek for Isaiah] the prophet, saying, Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.’ Matthew 12:16-19...Here the Gospel writer is quoting Isaiah 42:1-3, a passage that originally applied to ‘Israel, ... my servant.’ Isaiah 41:8, emphasis added. But Matthew again tells us it is ‘fulfilled’ in Jesus Christ!
The apostle Paul also followed the principle of applying state firstborn originally made about the nation of Israel to Jesus Christ. God called Israel ‘my firstborn’ in Exodus 4:22. Yet Paul said it was Jesus Christ who is ‘the firstborn of every creature.’ Colossians 1:15.
The clearest example of them all is where God called Israel ‘the seed of Abraham.’ Isaiah 41:8. Yet Paul later wrote that Abraham's seed does not refer to ‘many,’ but to ‘one, ... which is Christ.’ Galatians 3:16, emphasis added. Thus we discover that over and over in the New Testament, statements that originally applied to the nation of Israel are applied to Jesus Christ. The Messiah is now ‘the seed.’ Therefore Jesus is the very essence of Israel! This is an explosive truth!
A very careful study of the first book of the New Testament reveals that Christ actually repeated the history of ancient Israel, point by point, and overcame where they had failed. Notice the following amazing parallels between the history of ancient Israel and of Jesus Christ:
•In the Old Testament, a young man named Joseph had dreams and went into Egypt to preserve his family alive (Genesis 45:5). In the New Testament we find another Joseph, who likewise had dreams and then went to Egypt to preserve his family (Matthew 2:13).
•When the young nation of Israel came out of Egypt, God called that nation ‘my son’ in Exodus 4:22. When the baby Jesus came out of Egypt, God said, ‘Out of Egypt have I called my son.’ Matthew 2:15.
•When Israel left Egypt, the people went through the Red Sea. The apostle Paul says they were ‘baptized unto Moses ... in the sea.’ 1 Corinthians 10:2. Jesus was also baptized ‘to fulfill all righteousness,’ and immediately afterward God proclaimed Him, ‘my beloved Son’ (Matthew 3:15-17).
•After the Israelites went through the Red Sea, they spent 40 years in the wilderness. Immediately after His baptism, Jesus was ‘led up of the Spirit into the wilderness’ for 40 days (Matthew 4:1, 2).
•At the end of their 40-year wilderness wandering, Moses wrote the book of Deuteronomy. At the end of Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness, He resisted Satan's temptations by quoting three Scriptures-all from Deuteronomy!
•In Psalm 80:8, God calls Israel a ‘vine’ that He brought ‘out of Egypt.’ Yet Jesus later declared, ‘I am the true vine.’ John 15:1. In the Old Testament, the name ‘Israel’ first applied to one man, to Jacob. It represented Jacob's spiritual victory over sin. Even so, in the beginning of the New Testament we discover that Jesus Christ is the new Israel who came ‘out of Egypt.’ He is the one victorious Man who overcame all sin!” (Israel in Prophecy- Bible Prophecy Truth Website)
16 Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire; at your rebuke your people perish. 17 Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself. 18 Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. 19 Restore us, LORD God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.
“The Messiah, the Protector and Saviour of the church, is the Man of God's right hand; He is the Arm of the Lord, for all power is given to Him. In Him is our strength, by which we are enabled to persevere to the end. The vine, therefore, cannot be ruined, nor can any fruitful branch perish; but the unfruitful will be cut off and cast into the fire.” (Matthew Henry)